Abstract
Observations of widespread hydration across the lunar surface could be attributed to water formed via the implantation of solar wind hydrogen ions into minerals at the surface. Solar wind irradiation produces a defect-rich outer rim in lunar regolith grains which can trap implanted hydrogen to form and store water. However, the ability of hydrogen and water to be retained in space weathered regolith at the lunar surface is not well-understood. Here, we present results of novel and coordinated high-resolution analyses using transmission electron microscopy and atom probe tomography to measure hydrogen and water within space weathered lunar grains. We find that hydrogen and water are present in the solar wind-damaged rims of lunar grains and that these species are stored in higher concentrations in the vesicles that are formed by solar wind irradiation. These vesicles may serve as reservoirs that store water over diurnal and possibly geologic timescales. Solar wind-derived water trapped in space weathered rims is likely a major contributor to observations of the widespread presence, variability, and behavior of the water across the lunar surface.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 119178 |
| Journal | Earth and Planetary Science Letters |
| Volume | 651 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 1 2025 |
Funding
Alexander Kling reports financial support was provided by NASA. Jennika Greer reports financial support was provided by NASA. Michelle Thompson reports financial support was provided by NASA. Philipp Heck reports financial support was provided by NASA. If there are other authors, they declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.This work was supported by NASA Solar System Workings Grant 80NSSC20K0863 awarded to MST and NASA FINNEST grant 80NSSC23K1368 awarded to AMK. The authors also acknowledge funding of the Robert A. Pritzker Center by the TAWANI Foundation. We thank the Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Curation Office for allocation of the lunar samples used in this study. We acknowledge the use of facilities within the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University and the use of facilities at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS) at the Ohio State University. Atom-probe tomography was performed at the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT). The LEAP tomograph at NUCAPT was purchased and upgraded with grants from the NSF-MRI (DMR-0420532) and ONR-DURIP (N00014\u20130400798, N00014\u20130610539, N00014\u20130910781, N00014\u20131712870) programs. NUCAPT received support from the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-2308691) at the Materials Research Center, the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-2025633), and the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy (ISEN) at Northwestern University. We thank Rosa Diaz, Zhongxia Shang, and Robert Williams for TEM analytical assistance. We thank Maizey Benner for support in the initial SEM characterization of the grains selected for this study. We thank John Bradley for valuable discussions of EELS data. We thank Pierre-Marie Zanetta for valuable discussions in the use of Hyperspy for EELS analysis. Lastly, we thank two anonymous reviewers for comments that improved the quality of this manuscript. This work was supported by NASA Solar System Workings Grant 80NSSC20K0863 awarded to MST and NASA FINNEST grant 80NSSC23K1368 awarded to AMK. The authors also acknowledge funding of the Robert A. Pritzker Center by the TAWANI Foundation. We thank the Johnson Space Center Astromaterials Curation Office for allocation of the lunar samples used in this study. We acknowledge the use of facilities within the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University and the use of facilities at the Center for Electron Microscopy and Analysis (CEMAS) at the Ohio State University. Atom-probe tomography was performed at the Northwestern University Center for Atom-Probe Tomography (NUCAPT) . The LEAP tomograph at NUCAPT was purchased and upgraded with grants from the NSF-MRI ( DMR-0420532 ) and ONR-DURIP ( N00014-0400798 , N00014-0610539 , N00014-0910781 , N00014-1712870 ) programs. NUCAPT received support from the MRSEC program (NSF DMR-2308691 ) at the Materials Research Center, the SHyNE Resource (NSF ECCS-2025633 ), and the Initiative for Sustainability and Energy (ISEN) at Northwestern University. We thank Rosa Diaz, Zhongxia Shang, and Robert Williams for TEM analytical assistance. We thank Maizey Benner for support in the initial SEM characterization of the grains selected for this study. We thank John Bradley for valuable discussions of EELS data. We thank Pierre-Marie Zanetta for valuable discussions in the use of Hyperspy for EELS analysis.
Keywords
- Atom probe tomography
- Electron energy loss spectroscopy
- Lunar volatiles
- Lunar water
- Space weathering
- Transmission electron microscopy
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Geophysics
- Geochemistry and Petrology
- Space and Planetary Science
- Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)